I read writing blogs a lot. Agent blogs. Some editor or publisher blogs. Fellow writers blogs. Every day I read an average of five blogs, but not the same blogs each day. Over the course of any week I probably read 20 blogs.

Now, some of these I just skim. Sometimes one just refers to another. Some of them make frequent use of guest bloggers. A few of them, the ones I’ve read for a few years, are now recycling topics without giving much new information. So the time required to read these blogs really isn’t increasing even though the number of blogs I look at is slowly increasing.

Today Rachelle Gardner had a guest blogger, who talked about character flaws, something I’ve blogged about before. Our heroes must have faults. And it’s good if their faults are what cause them to get into hot water. The guest blogger used the example of Scarlet O’Hara in Gone With The Wind. She had her faults. Readers (and viewers) want to hate her for her flaws, but usually wind up sympathetic to her in spite of it.

This is something I struggle with. I wonder how much the general book-reading public really want the hero to have flaws. Do they want to see the mild-mannered become angry? The virtuous succumb to lust? The timid become obnoxiously bold? I wonder.

I’m out of words for right now. Maybe I’ll come back and edit more in, or just do a follow-up post.